Missing Donkeys and a Reserved Place at the Table

Saul’s introduction mirrors Samuel’s in 1:1: “there was a man”, a tribe, a five-generation pedigree. Kish is a gibbor chayil, “a mighty man of power”, the phrase used of Boaz in Ruth 2:1, a man of substance. None of the four ancestors is known from elsewhere, and 1 Chronicles 8:33 traces the family through Ner instead.

“Choice” is bachur, which means a young man in his prime and also sounds like bachar, chosen. “Goodly” is tov, good or handsome. Head and shoulders above everyone: Samuel will later warn, of David’s brother, “Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature” (16:7).

Donkeys were valuable working animals, the property of a well-off household. Kish sends Saul with “one of the servants”, na’ar, a young attendant. A king was later to take such servants (8:16); here Saul is still the one sent.

Shalisha and Shalim are unknown districts, perhaps in the hills of Ephraim. The verse runs on a repeated pattern: passed through, found them not, three times. The Hebrew for “there they were not” is two words, ve’ayin, “and nothing”.

Zuph is the district named from Samuel’s ancestor (1:1), so Saul has wandered into Samuel’s home country without knowing it. His concern for his father is the first thing he says in the Bible, and it is considerate.

“An honourable man” is nikbad, “one held in honour” or weight, the root of kavod again. The servant knows the local reputation of Samuel; Saul, apparently, has never heard of the most famous man in Israel.

It was the custom to bring a gift when consulting a prophet: Jeroboam’s wife brings loaves and honey to Ahijah (1 Kings 14:3), and Naaman silver to Elisha (2 Kings 5:15). “The bread is spent” shows how long they have been walking; the food has run out.

A quarter shekel is about three grams of silver, a token gift. The servant, not Saul, has the money and the plan. He says he will give it himself.

The bracketed note explains an old word, ro’eh, seer, one who sees, for a reader of a later time who would say navi, prophet. It shows the book was edited when the older term had fallen out of use.

“Well said” is literally “your word is good”. Saul accepts the servant’s plan without adding anything. The city is not named; it is probably Ramah, Samuel’s home, though some place it elsewhere in Zuph.

Meeting young women at a well is a pattern in Genesis and Exodus: Abraham’s servant finds Rebekah (Genesis 24), Jacob finds Rachel (Genesis 29), Moses finds Zipporah (Exodus 2). Each time a marriage follows. Here the pattern leads to an anointing instead.

The high place, bamah, was a raised open-air shrine, the ordinary place of worship before the temple (1 Kings 3:2). The women’s answer tumbles out in a stream of details; the rabbis (Berakhot 48b) said they talked on so as to look longer at Saul’s beauty.

Samuel is to bless the sacrifice before anyone eats, as the host says grace. “They that be bidden” are the invited guests, about thirty, as verse 22 will say. The women’s timing is exact: “about this time”, now.

“Came out against them” means toward them, to meet them. Saul and Samuel arrive at the gate in the same moment from opposite directions.

“Told Samuel in his ear” is literally “uncovered the ear of Samuel”, galah ozen, the idiom for revealing a secret, used when Boaz informs the kinsman in Ruth 4:4. The revelation comes a day before Saul arrives.

“Captain” is nagid, leader or one designated, not melekh, king. The LORD’s words echo Exodus 3:7–9: “I have looked upon my people… their cry is come unto me.” Saul’s task is set as the Exodus task, to save Israel from its oppressor.

“Behold the man” uses hinneh ha’ish. “Reign” here is atsar, to restrain or rule, an unusual verb for kingship, the power to hold a people in check.

Saul asks the seer where the seer lives, in the gate, the most public place in town. The Book of 1 Samuel enjoys the moment and does not explain it.

Samuel answers the question in three words, “I am the seer”, and then invites him to go up first, before Samuel, a mark of honour. “All that is in thine heart” promises to answer questions Saul has not yet asked.

The donkeys have been lost three days; Samuel knows how long. “The desire of Israel” can mean “all that is desirable in Israel”, as in Haggai 2:7, or the thing Israel desires, a king. Either way it rests on Saul.

Benjamin was the smallest tribe, reduced to six hundred men in Judges 20:47. Saul’s answer echoes Gideon’s in Judges 6:15: “my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” Both men protest their smallness when called.

The “parlour” is the lishkah, a hall or chamber at the high place, the word later used of rooms in the temple courts. Thirty guests are present; the Greek reads seventy. Saul sits at the head of the table beside his servant.

The portion was set aside the day before, when Samuel invited the guests. The cook, tabbach, is the word for a butcher or slaughterer; it later becomes the title of Nebuchadnezzar’s captain of the guard, literally “chief of the slaughterers” (2 Kings 25:8).

The shoulder, or thigh, was the priest’s portion in Leviticus 7:32, and “that which was upon it” may be the fat tail, a delicacy. Samuel has kept it back since he first sent out the invitations. Saul eats a priest’s share as the honoured guest, at the head of thirty.

Houses had flat roofs, used as living and sleeping space in warm weather. The Greek reads that they spread a bed for Saul on the roof and he slept there, a different division of the Hebrew consonants.

“About the spring of the day” means at daybreak. Samuel calls up to the roof, “Up”, a word of rousing. The two walk out together, and the verse stresses both of them, he and Samuel.

The servant has been the resourceful one throughout the chapter, and now he is sent ahead so that the word is given to Saul alone. “Stand thou still” is literally “stand as today”, stop here, now.